What is Writer's Block?

What is Writer's Block?
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Most writers will tell you something along the lines of this: that Writer's Block is some dark inner demon that secretly torments them, while freezing their brain and refusing to allow them to think of anything to write.
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Many editors will tell you that Writer's Block is as fictional as fiction itself, and is nothing more than a cop-out and sheer laziness on the part of the writer.
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What is Writer's Block? That's a very good question. Lets look at that question on a closer level, shall we?
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First off let's ask: What is a writer?
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A writer is who writes on a pretty regular basis, wither or not they have been published. Writers can mean those who write for newspapers or those who write fiction, those who write for medical journals, or those who write TV sitcom scripts. They all write. They all get Writer's Block. If I was to start detailing all of them, I'd have to write an encyclopedia on the subject, so, for the sake of simplicity, in this article, we will assume that a writer is one who writes fiction in novel or short story format. Now, back to the question: What is a writer?

A writer is someone who writes, probably every day or nearly so. Usually they feel compelled to write, as though they have no control over it. It is as though they will die if they cannot write something down. Their every fiber burns with the sensation, the uncontrollable passion, that they must put words to paper in order to survive. They feel every emotion their characters feel: the love, the pain, the horror, the fear, the anxiety, and the lust for adventure. They not only feel their characters, they become their characters. Everything in life sparks a new story idea. They awake at night from their sleep to jot down in notebooks. They pull their car off the road to write down ideas on the edges of maps. They are obsessed with the fever that is coming known as writing. That is a writer.
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Now, what is a block?
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A block is something that stops the flow. Beaver dams block streams. Concrete dams block rivers. Cholesterol blocks blood vessels. Fallen trees block roadways. Sand blocks gas lines. Oceans block dry land. Rubber duckies block tub drains. Writer's Block blocks the writer's brain.
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So there you have it, Writer's Block is anything that stops the flow of creative concentration through a writer's brain.
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This article was originally published in April 2007, under the title "Need to Kill Writer's Block? Kill a Character..." is copyright to Wendy C. Allen and The Twighlight Manor Press, and is reprinted here on ACwith permission.